On July 31, 2017, the New York Times organized an opinion editorial by journalist Katherine Stewart, stating that the attacks on “public schools” have their roots in American slavery, Jim Crow-era segregation, anti-Catholic sentiment, and a particular form of Christianity?fundamentalism? and these roots are still visible today?. Although Stewart doesn’t use the term? Homeschool?in its editorial opinion, implies that parents who choose to educate their children outside the public school system participate in a culture that promotes racism and theonomy (for rebuttals to Stewart, see this article by Andrew T. Walker and this by David French).
The true story of the opposition to? Public schools? it is more interesting and varied than Stewart claims. This is particularly true with regard to homeschooling. Here are nine things to know about the history of this educational movement:
- 1.
- La home education is the education of schoolchildren (5 to 17 years old) in a class equivalent to at least kindergarten and no more than the twelfth grade [1] they receive from home school rather than a public or private school.
- Mostly or complete before 1990.
- It was estimated that there were only a few hundred thousand home-school students in the United States.
- In 2012.
- The last date statistics are available.
- The number increased to 1.
- 8 million.
- Or about 3% of the school.
- -age population.
Although many families using the homeschool were Protestant Christians, the movement itself was originally diverse in its ideology and not inherently religious. In the early years of the movement, the most common characteristic of homeschooling families was incorporating the unconventional and the desire to be perceived as nonconformist in relation to the dominant culture. As the sociologist Mitchell L. Stevens put it, early members of the movement included “anarchists, practicing witches, macrobiotic vegetarians, bed share followers, Orthodox Jews, and a large number of fundamentalist Christians. ” Before 1970, several small subcultures within the United States, including a homeschooling faction led by theonomist Rousas John Rushdoony, operated independently and rarely intermingled. The modern schools movement can be attributed to the influence of two men: John Holt, on the secular side, and Raymond Moore, on the religious side.
3. The former primary school teacher, the liberal Holt, was in favour of non-traditional teaching methods, such as “de-schooling,” a very free approach to home education that he called “life learning. “Holt’s approach became popular with those who incorporated the counterculture values of the 1960s and founded their own families. Holt published several books on education and the first home education journal in 1977. The book Growing Without Schooling was published for 24 years and before the Internet age served as a resource and network for families who used the school at home.
4. Raymond Moore, EdD, was an employee of the U. S. Department of Education when he and his wife Dorothy, a reading teacher and former primary school teacher, began looking for questions about the effect of institutionalized education on young children. more interested in school at home and later to be supporters of it?Moore Moore? (study, manual work, home/community service). As a faithful seventh-day Adventist, Moore wrote several books for Christian parents, including Better Late Than Early (1975), Home Grown Kids (1981) and Home-spun Schools (1982), which became influential at the beginning of the movement. religious education at home.
5. Despite the fact that the movement was originally diverse, sociologists identified three factors that made home education particularly popular in Protestant and evangelical conservative circles: (1) a deep potential support base (about 25% of Americans) at the time identified themselves as conservative Protestants), (2) a tendency to promote the importance of domestic life and motherhood as a full-time vocation , and (3) an institutional structure (churches, Christian universities, publishing house) that provided organic support to the movement. Stevens notes that these two factors largely explain why religious home education groups have definitively protected control over the definition of home education despite the ideologically diverse origins of the cause. Conservative Protestants simply had more potential recruits and organizational resources to drive the project than the radicals of education that followed John Holt’s initial leadership.
6. The initial homeschooling movement faced a significant legal hurdle: compulsory education laws, which required children to attend a state-recognized public or private school for a period of time. Massachusetts became the first state to implement a compulsory education law in 1852, and Mississippi became the last state to pass such a law in 1917. For most of the remainder of the 20th century, homeschooling was considered a violation of these laws. In 1971, three Amish families stood up to Wisconsin’s compulsory education law, claiming they had the right to educate their children according to their values. In Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972), the Supreme Court ruled that, under the First Amendment protection of the free exercise of religion, families could not be compelled to send their children to public schools if it “interfered with the practice of religious beliefs “. Although this case set a precedent for several legal challenges created by homeschooled families, the Supreme Court has never ruled directly on whether parents have a broad constitutional right to raise their children at home.
7. In 1983, Mike Farris and Mike Smith, attorneys who were also homeschooled parents, founded the Homeschool Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) with the mission of “Preserving and promoting fundamental constitutional law, granted by God, to parents and others legally responsible for directing their children’s education. ” At the time the association was created, homeschooling was legal in only a few states, and parents who supported them faced legal pressure to send their children to “public schools. ” HSLDA allowed families to pay an annual fee of $ 100 to provide legal defense against the state and local educational system. In return, the HSLDA would pay for all “attorneys, expert testimony, travel, and other legal costs authorized by state law. “
8. Before the early 1980s, families practicing home education faced a difficult time winning legal disputes. The first major court case in favor of home education was the State v. Massa (1967), of New Jersey. 20 years to change his laws. Thanks to the efforts of HSLDA and other lawyers, home education has gradually gained legal recognition. In mid-1993, home education was finally legalized in all 50 states.
9. De many families who use home education continue to participate in activities in public schools. Currently, 28 states do not prevent homeschooled students from participating in interuniversity games in public schools. And, according to the US News and World Report, in at least 15 other states they are considering the “Tim Tebow Laws. “Called by the name of the teaching athlete at home? This would allow home-schooled students to access sports activities in schools. Even by allowing these students to participate, education departments save money through home education. Depending on the number of participants, families of household-educated children are estimated to generate annual tax savings of $22 billion.
By: Joe Carter. © The Gospel Coalition. Website: voltemosaoevangelho. com. Translated with permission. Source: 9 things to know about the history of the Homeschooling movement.
Original: 9 things to know about home education. © Gospel Return Movement. Website: voltemosaoevangelho. com. All rights reserved. Translation: Marcelo Rigo dos Santos. Review: Filipe Castelo Branco.